U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie posted a quote online Sunday that ostensibly is from Voltaire, the 1700s-era French philosopher, but actually is a paraphrased statement from a man the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a neo-Nazi.
Massie, R-Ky., tweeted an image of a hand pressing down on a crowd of people, along with this quote: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
Massie's tweet misattributed that statement to Voltaire, as have variations of the quote that have circulated around the internet for years.
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However, USA TODAY reported last year the source of the quote is actually Kevin Alfred Strom, whom the SPLC (which monitors hate groups) lists as a neo-Nazi who previously founded a neo-Nazi group of his own.
USA TODAY reported that a similarly paraphrased quote — 'If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize' — was misattributed to Voltaire.
But the source material actually comes from a 1993 radio broadcast Strom did, during which he said: "To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?"
The Courier Journal requested a comment from Massie through a spokesman but did not receive a response as of late Monday afternoon.
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USA TODAY reported that Strom took credit in 2017 for the paraphrased quotes many people have shared online but misattributed to Voltaire, including the variation of the quote Massie used in his tweet Sunday.
Strom spent the 1990s producing "anti-Semitic and racist material," the SPLC said. He also was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2008, according to the SPLC and to news reports.
The Kentucky Jewish Council criticized Massie's use of this oft-misattributed quote from Strom, calling the post he shared ill-researched and hateful in a statement this week.
"The quote he used was never uttered by Voltaire. It originates with a white supremacist who called for violence against the Jewish people," the council said. "Unfortunately Representative (Massie) does not care."
The council also said this isn't the first time Massie "has tweeted blatant antisemitism that originated with white supremacists."
In August, Massie made a Twitter post that compared so-called vaccine passports — a buzzword that basically references some form of verification that a person has gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 — to the identification numbers Nazis tattooed on people who were abused and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust.
He appeared to quickly delete that tweet at the time.
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Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, the Kentucky Jewish Council's chairman, told The Courier Journal Massie's post is troubling for multiple reasons, including his Holocaust-related tweet last August and the origin of the meme he shared Sunday.
"The meme itself is anti-Semitic. In the original meme, the hand crushing the people had a Jewish Star of David on the cuff," Litvin said.
Actor John Cusack was criticized in 2019, and eventually apologized for, sharing that image featuring a blue Star of David along with a variation of the quote that's misattributed to Voltaire.
If a U.S. representative or his social media team plans to use a meme, it might be worth checking where it came from, Litvin said. "And it is dangerous when a congressman is given this platform and uses it in such an irresponsible manner."
"I also think at a certain point ignorance is no longer an excuse," Litvin said, noting that Massie hadn't publicly said if he was unaware of the real root of the quote he shared and hadn't deleted the tweet as of late Monday afternoon.
In the post, Massie linked this misattributed quote to his view of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who's often criticized by conservative congressmen like Massie and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who oppose the federal government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Massie paired the misattributed quote with a comment of his own in his tweet Sunday, saying: "You mustn't question Fauci, for he is science."
Morgan Watkins is The Courier Journal's chief political reporter. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26.
